Pl. II.
E. & F. N. Spon, London & New York.
"INK-PHOTO." SPRAGUE & CO. LONDON.
REMOVING THE HAIR; SCRAPING AND CLEANING THE SKINS.
(1) East Indian or Amboyna Kino.—This is obtained from Pterocarpus Marsupium, a common tree in the central and southern parts of the Indian peninsula, and in Ceylon; and a liquid kind from P. indicus, of South India, Burma, Malacca, Penang, the Andamans, and Malaysia. The collection of the juice is effected in the following manner. A perpendicular incision, with lateral offshoots, is made in the stem of the tree when blossoming has set in, and a receptacle is placed at the foot of the incision. The exuding juice appears like red-currant jelly, but it soon thickens by exposure to the air, and when sufficiently dried, is packed into wooden boxes for exportation. It is one of the reserved timber-trees of the Government forests in Madras, and its juice is collected by natives, who pay a small fee for the permission. The hardened juice consists of blackish-red, angular, pea-like grains, partially soluble in water, almost entirely in spirit of wine of sp. gr. 0·838, readily in caustic alkaline solutions, and largely in a saturated solution of sugar. The liquid kino produces a very inferior article on drying. The annual collection of kino in Madras probably does not exceed 1-2 tons. Its approximate London market value is 60-150s. a cwt. It is employed medicinally, and in the manufacture of wines, and might be employed as a source of tannin in dyeing and tanning, if sufficiently cheap.
(2) Butea, Bengal, Palas or Dhak Kino.—This variety is afforded by the palas or dhak tree (Butea frondosa), common throughout India and Burma, and affording a dyestuff, and a fibre, as well as by B. superba and B. parviflora. During the hot season, there issues from natural fissures and from wounds made in the bark of the stem, a red juice, which quickly hardens to a ruby-coloured, brittle, astringent mass. It occurs in small drops or tears, and in flat pieces which have been dried on leaves, and is almost always mixed with bark-fragments. It is transparent, freely soluble in cold water, and does not soften in the mouth. It is unknown in European commerce, but is employed in India as a substitute for the kind first described.
(3) African or Gambia Kino.—This is derived from Pterocarpus erinaceus, a native of Tropical West Africa, from Senegambia to Angola. The juice exudes naturally from fissures in the bark, but more abundantly from incisions, and soon coagulates to a blood-red and very brittle mass, known to the Portuguese of Angola as sangue del drago ("dragon's-blood"). It is practically undistinguishable from the officinal kind first described, but is not a regular article of commerce.